He’s on the small side, but A’s Jharel Cotton is big news

How tough a decision was leaving the Caribbean islands for Newport News, Va.? “You want to know?” Jharel Cotton said with a laugh. “It was easy.”

Photo: Ben Margot, Associated Press

No giant now, Jharel Cotton was a particularly itty-bitty kid growing up in the Virgin Islands, and his lack of size nearly meant a premature end to his baseball career; coach Brock Creque took one look at a 12-year-old Cotton and cut him from an All-Star team headed to play in Antigua.

“He was tiny and weak,” Creque said. “The other coaches and Jharel’s brother came and begged me to give him another chance. I said, ‘Why? He’s small and scrawny.’”

Cotton, now the most promising of the A’s rookie starters, was so disheartened by Creque’s assessment, he figured that was it for him and the sport he loved so much.

“My hopes were over after that,” Cotton said. “I thought, ‘I’m not good anymore.’”

Cotton’s brother, Jamaine, lobbied so hard that Creque eventually said he’d give Jharel one week to prove himself, and “Jharel came in and worked harder than anyone else. And yeah, he was small, but he had the knowledge of someone 20 years older.”

The A's pitcher works against the Los Angeles Angels on Sept. 7, 2016, in Oakland.

Photo: Ben Margot, Associated Press

Perhaps that was because the Cotton brothers had to grow up so fast. Their mother, Jacqueline Victor Jones, died of breast cancer when Jharel was 12 and Jamaine was 13, which is when the boys moved from the British Virgin Islands to the U.S. Virgin Islands to live with their uncle, Frankie Victor.

Several baseball coaches took the Cotton brothers under their wings, too, including Creque, Terrence Chinnery, who taught Jharel his devastating changeup, and Leon Bokeem Martin, who bonded with the younger Cotton quickly.

“I’m small, too, 5-6, 5-7, and I knew that even though Jharel had a small frame, he had something special about him,” Martin said. “Height doesn’t matter. I knew he had heart.

“And you hear people talk now about how poised Jharel is; I saw that from the time I knew him. Even as a kid, he never got rattled. He has that baby-faced smile and he just never goes out of character, but he’s always been that composed.”

By the time he was 14, Cotton had an assortment of as many as 10 pitches. He loved to imitate big-leaguers and according to Creque, learned to throw Daisuke Matsuzaka’s “gyroball” in one day from mimicking Matsuzaka’s delivery.

Cotton began dominating opponents to such an extent, that when he played up a year and faced a loaded Dominican Republic team at a tournament for 15-16-year-olds, the Dominican coach decided he’d seen enough. “Jharel pitched four innings and their coach ran onto the field and said, ‘No mas, no mas! We can’t hit him, this little boy!’” Creque said. “ I thought he was joking, but he was dead serious. He said, ‘We quit.’”

When Creque headed to the U.S. for school, he asked the Cottons’ uncle if he could take the boys with him so they could face better competition. Jamaine played at Western Oklahoma State. Jharel lived with Creque’s uncle and grandmother and played high school baseball.

Jharel Cotton is now the most promising of the A’s rookie starters

Photo: Ezra Shaw, Getty Images

How tough a decision was leaving the Caribbean islands for Newport News, Va.?

“You want to know?” Cotton said with a laugh. “It was easy.”

He hadn’t seen snow before and he loved making snow angels. He was fascinated by the novelty of unpredictable temperatures and watched the Weather Channel every day.

The Cotton brothers thrived in the mainland. Jharel put up an 0.76 ERA for Menchville High School and struck out 74 in 362/3 innings to help the team to the 2009 state title, then played at Miami Dade College and East Carolina before being drafted by the Dodgers in the 20th round in 2012. Jamaine was drafted by the Giants in 2009 and elected to remain in school. He went pro when the Astros took him in the 15th round the next year.

The brothers faced each other two seasons ago, when Jharel was pitching for Class A Rancho Cucamonga and Jamaine for Lancaster. Jharel struck out 10 and got the win. Jamaine worked in relief.

“It was big news back home,” said Jamaine, who is back at school, at Florida Atlantic, and trying to restart his baseball career after a knee injury led to his release last year. “There was a big write-up in the paper. People know what’s happening with the players from the Virgin Islands, even in the minor leagues.”

More by Susan Slusser

So it was a huge deal this month when Cotton became the fourth pitcher from the Virgin Islands to reach the major leagues. “There are so few players from here, we’re not like the other areas of the Caribbean with lots of big-leaguers, so Jharel makes the front page of the paper every time,” Martin said.

It’s all good news so far. Little Jharel — now generously listed at 5-foot-11 — was acquired from the Dodgers in the Josh Reddick-Rich Hill trade on Aug. 1 and came up Sept. 7. Since then, the 24-year-old has allowed 11 hits and three runs in 18 innings, good for a 1.50 ERA. He’ll start the A’s final home game of the season Sunday against the Rangers.

“It gives me goose bumps. I went to a restaurant the other day and the A’s game was on, and I saw Jharel warming up and I froze,” Martin said. “I couldn’t even remember what I was going to order. It really touches my heart. Every time he gets an an opportunity, he’s opened up some eyes.”

Susan Slusser has worked at The San Francisco Chronicle since 1996. She has been a member of the Baseball Writers Association of America since 1993 and in 2012 became the only woman to be elected president in the 111 years of the organization. She has written about many other sports for the paper, particularly hockey and, more recently, e-sports.

Susan previously covered the Texas Rangers for the Dallas Morning News, the Orlando Magic for the Orlando Sentinel, and the NBA and other sports for the Sacramento Bee.

Susan is an on-air correspondent for the MLB Network and makes regular appearances on 95.7 FM The Game. Her book about the A’s, 100 Things A's Fans Need to Know and Do Before They Die, came out in 2014 and she and A’s radio announcer Ken Korach are working on a book that will come out in 2019.